Will was sitting in the infirmary, struggling to read a book. His dyslexia, while not as bad as the other demigods, was acting up, and it was difficult to read properly. Suddenly, Cecil and Lou Ellen came running to him, worried looks on their faces.
“Hey, Will?” Cecil asked. “You seen Nico?”
“No, I haven’t seen him since breakfast. Why?”
“We can’t find him. No one can. He’s totally missing,” Lou Ellen said nervously.
Will raised an eyebrow. “Wanna bet?” He walked off toward the woods, Lou Ellen and Cecil following him.
He got about halfway into the forest and stopped, making both of his followers run into him. Lou Ellen looked around. “There’s nothing here!”
She looked to Will. He was pointing up. She followed his pointing and looked up in the tree beside them. There, Nico was asleep, his back against the trunk and his legs on either side of a thick branch.
“Told you I’d find him. Don’t tell people where this is, he likes it because it’s…peaceful. Now go away, I want to talk to him.” Cecil and Lou Ellen smiled and promised not to tell anyone where Nico’s hiding spot was. They ran back to camp and left Will.
Will looked up. Nico was awake, looking back down at him. He smiled and started climbing. Nico scooted along the branch, making room for Will to sit with his back to trunk, like he had been. Will eventually got up the tree and swung his leg over to straddle the branch like Nico was.
Nico watched Will get comfortable, or at least in a position where he thought he’d be least likely to fall. Will looked up, smiling. He was obviously proud of himself. And the grin was so infectious that Nico couldn’t help but smile back. He scooted closer to his boyfriend.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” Will answered, reaching up to cradle Nico’s face in his hand. Nico noticed his breathing was quick and he was panting. He figured it was because of the climb up. “Whaddaya doin’ up here?”
“I was sleeping, because I couldn’t sleep last night. You know I always have trouble sleeping when you work. And you were working today, and I wanted to try to train myself to sleep easier, so I climbed up and slept up here.” Will raised his eyebrows.
“How do you sleep up here? I could never.” Will looked down and turned pale. Nico reached over and tilted his chin to look back to him. Will’s jaw was tight and his eyebrows were knit together. Nico looked at him worriedly.
“Are you sick? You look—oh. You’re afraid of heights, aren’t you?” Will nodded fast. “Hey, it’s ok. We’re okay up here. How about we focus on getting you down, huh?” Will nodded quickly again.
Nico went down first, and slowly instructed him on how to climb down, always telling him to look up. Nico reached the ground and held Will’s waist the rest of the way down. When Will got on the ground, he hugged Nico tight. Nico smiled and hugged back, wrapping his arms around Will’s waist and breathing in his scent. He pulled away slightly and studied Will’s face.
“Why did you come all the way up there if you were afraid of heights?”
“It’s where you were. I’ll do anything for you, Nico.” Will brushed the hair out of Nico’s face and kissed his forehead. Nico smiled and stood on his tip toes to kiss his boyfriend.
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